It’s not exactly been a season for strikers this year, with a number of big names performing well beyond expectations so far as some of the top teams in the Premier League and around Europe seemingly perform best without fielding one at all.

Is the traditional centre-forward now an endangered species? Have this new generation of super-savvy managers and defenders worked them out? Or is this all just a bit of a blip not to be taken too seriously?

Diego Costa certainly isn’t reading the script as he sits top of the Premier League scoring charts (on 7 goals) after some fine form, but up there among the best goalscorers in England this term are also this new breed of ‘false-9’ attackers increasingly deployed by top flight managers: Alexis Sanchez and Son Heung-min (4 each); or versatile winger-forwards such as Theo Walcott, Michail Antonio (both 5) and Eden Hazard (4).

But who are the ones meant to be providing the goals who are struggling…and why? Here’s a look at five big-name examples from the Premier League:

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Ibrahimovic’s form has tailed off after a strong start (Picture: Getty)

Two stats perfectly sum up Ibrahimovic’s time in a United shirt so far, and they are:

Ibrahimovic decline

First 5 games – 5 goals

Next 9 games – 1 goal

Perhaps this should be expected from a player who’s just turned 35, but it’s also an incredibly rapid decline by a world class player who seemed to be loving life in Manchester at the start of the season.

Not short of playing time and trust from his manager, Ibrahimovic’s form may be best explained by the dip of those around him since the shell-shock of that home defeat to Manchester City at the start of September. Jose Mourinho has reverted to type and arguably gone too cautious since then, with creative players like Paul Pogba and Juan Mata perhaps too shackled to exert the kind of influence they’d like, while arguably the top playmaker in Europe last season, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, has barely got a look-in at all.

Ibrahimovic could still be doing better with the chances he’s had – with various stats showing he’s guilty of the most ‘big misses’ in the top flight – but that could be explained by the overall negativity in the squad and in Mourinho’s tactics.

Sergio Aguero

Aguero has also lost his scoring touch recently (Picture: Getty)

Even more so than Ibrahimovic, Sergio Aguero was absolutely on fire at the start of this season as he bagged an incredible eleven goals in his first six games.

Since then, however, it’s six games without a single solitary strike for the Argentine, who has lost confidence after being taken in and out of the side by manager Pep Guardiola.

Like Ibrahimovic, Aguero seems to be the victim of his manager’s tendency to cling to a philosophy of football: while Mourinho has starved service to his front-men by putting an emphasis on defence, Guardiola has responded to some bad results by tinkering with his side and perhaps trying a little too hard to reinvent the wheel with Kevin De Bruyne in a false-9 role.

As Mourinho has a strong record to point to with his parking-the-bus football throughout his career, Guardiola will feel he has done this before to great success with Lionel Messi at Barcelona and, to a lesser extent, with Thomas Muller at Bayern Munich.

Football purists will wonder, however, what the point of it all is if the effect is alienating one of the best strikers in the world and one of your squad’s most deadly weapons.

Daniel Sturridge

Daniel Sturridge has just four goals all season, all of which have come in the League Cup. In the Premier League, he is without a goal since April.

Where has it gone so wrong for one of the best strikers in the Premier League? A superb natural talent, Sturridge has obviously suffered with his numerous injury problems down the years, but now that he’s fit, why has he not won his place in the starting XI back?

Liverpool currently sit level on points with Manchester City and Arsenal at the top of the table, and like these two, they seem to feel the future is playing without a recognised striker. For all of Sturridge’s qualities, he certainly lacks the speed, fluidity, work rate and selfless play of the Reds’ current front three Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho.

The former Chelsea man may be a joy to watch on his day, but he isn’t ideally suited to Klopp-ball, and in the managerial super league that the Premier League has become this season, it seems that decision will be final. No one, not even players like Sturridge and Aguero, are untouchable.

Vincent Janssen

Janssen is yet to find his shooting boots for Spurs (Picture: Getty)

A hugely disappointing summer signing, Vincent Janssen has only managed two goals for Tottenham so far this season. Both of those have been penalties in the League Cup.

Compared to Ruud van Nistelrooy for his prolific form in the Eredivisie, one wonders if that kind of penalty-box poacher can cut it in the modern Premier League, with this Dutchman failing to reach anywhere near the same heights as the former Manchester United hit-man.

Janssen's struggles

Last season – 49 games, 31 goals

This season – 14 games, 2 goals

Clearly an accomplished finisher, as his stats from last season at AZ Alkmaar show, Janssen doesn’t have any other obvious strings to his bow – not particularly fast, not particularly skilful, nor blessed with the kind of creativity and link-up play expected of modern forwards.

As such, the 22-year-old perhaps hasn’t seen as much playing time as expected, even in the absence of Harry Kane. Maybe he will turn things around, but for now the mere fact that Mauricio Pochettino has preferred moving Son Heung-min up front (with great results) speaks volumes about what this crop of managers want their strikers to contribute on the pitch.

Michy Batshuayi

Batshuayi hasn’t been trusted at Chelsea (Picture: Getty)

Lastly, and in a slightly different situation at Chelsea, Michy Batshuayi looks to have arrived at Stamford Bridge under slightly confusing circumstances.

The prolific young Belgian impressed a host of top clubs this summer after scoring 23 goals in all competitions for Marseille last season, but it was Chelsea that beat others to his signature as they feared what then looked like a likely departure for Diego Costa.

As it happened, the Spaniard was kept around by Antonio Conte, and is one of the club’s most revitalised stars this season, bucking the trend by showing that a lone man up front can still be a vital part of a modern title challenging-team.

Still, for Batshuayi, that has meant a lot of time on the bench and a lack of opportunities to be the focal point Costa has been for the Blues this term. Whether or not he’ll stick around to try and prove he can be a better option remains to be seen, but almost any striker would struggle to displace Costa in this kind of form.